374 



The great strength of the leg, and especially of the metatarsal segment, 

 which is shortened, as in the burrowing Apteryx, almost to the galli- 

 naceous proportions, must have had reference, especially in the less 

 gigantic species, to something more than sustaining and transporting the 

 superincumbent weight of the body, and this additional function is indi- 

 cated by both the analogy of the Apteryx and the Rasorial birds to be 

 the scratching up the soil. 



Thus far, at least, the positive facts justify the attempt to restore, and, 

 as it were, to present a living portrait of the long-lost Dinornis ; and, 

 without giving the rein to a too exuberant fancy, we may take a retro- 

 spective glance at the scene of a fair island, offering, by the will of a 

 bountiful Providence, a well-spread table to a race of animated beings 

 peculiarly adapted to enjoy it ; and we may recall the time when the 

 several species of Dinornis ranged the lords of its soil — the highest 

 living forms upon that part of the earth. No terrestrial Mammal was 

 there to contest this sovranty with the feathered bipeds before the arrival 

 of man*. 



Without laying undue stress on the native tradition of the gigantic 

 Eagle or ' Movie,' cited by Mr. Rule-f-, or on that of the great creature of 

 the cavernj called ' Moa,' which first attracted the attention of Mr. Wil- 

 liams to the remains of the Dinornis ; and admitting, with the cautious 

 scepticism due to second-hand testimony, the tale of the still-existing 

 nocturnal gigantic bird which scared the whaling seamen on the hill at 

 Cloudy Bay, — the evidence of the chemical condition of the bones them- 

 selves J, and their alluvial bed, favour the hypothesis of their compara- 



very palatable, yet contain much nutriment." Voyage of the Adventure and Beagle, vol. iii. ' Dar- 

 win,' p. 504. 



* Mr. Darwin says, " It is a most remarkable fact that so large an island, extending over more than 

 700 miles in latitude, and in many parts 90 miles broad, with varied stations, a fine climate, and land 

 of all heights from 14,000 feet downwards, with the exception of a small rat, should not possess one 

 indigenous mammal." — Loc. cit. p. 511. 



t Polytechnic Journal, July 1843. 



% The following chemical analyses have been made by Thomas Taylor, Esq., author of the Cata- 

 logue of the Calculi and other Animal Concretions in the Museum of the College : — 



